With its wide diversity of people and catches of nature, India faces more than a few environmental problems that can destroy her perfect ecological stability and sustainable progress. There are diverse problems like air pollution and loss of biodiversity that threaten the country at large. These problems extend beyond the population and economy. Based on the World Air Quality Report 2021, India has the most polluted cities globally. 63 of the top 100 most polluted cities are in India, and the annual mean PM2.5 level is even higher than the WHO guideline value of 11.26 μg/m³.

Key Environmental Statistics India

• 63 of 100 leading toxic runners worldwide are in India, according to the World Air Quality Report 2021.
• The amounts of microscopic particulate matter PM2.5 in India are being fixed to the overall annual average PM2.5 level in 2021 of 58.1 µg/m³ (World Air Quality Report 2021).
• 70% of surface water in India is inferred as being unfitted for water consumption.
• 40 million liters of untreated water flow into rivers and water bodies daily in India. The pollution caused by the discharge of this waste destroys marine life as well as the water.
• 21 cities in India with a large population, including those portrayed in the 2019 report, will run out of groundwater by 2030.
• India generates 277 million caddy tonnes of Municipal solid waste annually.
• India has four major biodiversity hot spots and 1,212 animals on the IUCN Red List, which indicates particularly high ecological diversity.

Air Pollution

Though air pollution is one of the most difficult environmental problems in the country, it is also crucial. Indeed, China is one of the world’s highest-polluting countries, emitting over 2.65 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere yearly. Owning to the fact that in March-April 2020, there was a lockdown in India, the average Air Quality Index (AQI) per day came down from 656 to 306 in the year 2019, which was a fifty-four percent reduction in the AQI, demonstrating the hallmark of the effect of trash human activities on the quality of air in the country. However, the pollution amelioration was only temporal, as the air pollution situation became as severe in November 2021, forcing most major power plants to shut down.

Water Pollution and Scarcity

Water pollution and scarcity are also considered India’s most crucial environmental challenges. Almost 70% of the water surface in the country has been quantified to be polluted and somehow unsuitable for human consumption, followed by 40 million liters of waste that enter rivers and other water bodies.

Every year, water pollution may cost the country’s government 6.7-7.7 billion, resulting in a 9% decrease in revenue and a 16% decrease in agriculture downstream output. India’s population ranks it as the second most common place to find this type of disease, where it kills 36,000,000 citizens a year and leads up to 400,000 people to their deaths.

Food and Water Shortages

While there is also the problem of food and water shortages, which are exasperated by environmental changes due to climate change, in March 2022, India endured its hottest and driest month in the last 120 years. This prolonged heatwave and droughts have been taking a toll on the country since then. Agriculture segment above 60% deals exchangeably with droughty dry seasons, in that food security is at stake. As much as 85% of freshwater in India is used in agriculture, which results in a sinful situation in (some) of the states.

Waste Management

India, like this, has been dealing with its dirt disposal problems, another critical issue. The country is the largest plastic waste-producing nation that produces over 25,000 tonnes of useless plastic waste daily, making up about 6% of total solid waste. Indus, Godavari, and Brahmaputra rivers are called the `highways of plastic flows,’ funneling and expelling most of the country’s plastic waste. The era of single-use plastics in our country ended on the 1st of July 2022 when the government announced consolidation and distribution of single-use plastics will be violated from today.

Biodiversity Loss

Biodiversity loss is a critical environmental issue in India, with the country home to four major biodiversity hotspots: the Himalayan mountains, the Western Ghats, Sundaland, and the Indo-Burma region. By comparing the numbers, it is found that India had lost more than 90% of the areas harboring these biodiversity hotspots. 

Besides that, 7% of India’s 157 bird species, 87 mammals and 1,212 reptiles, amphibians, and aquatic species are on the list of the IUCN Red List. Moreover, 16% of India’s 47 freshwater fish, 90 crustaceans, mollusks, insects, and aquatic plants are Over the past two decades from the beginning of the century, India has lost a whopping 19% of its tree cover comprising 2.8% due to deforestation and the remaining due to wide-spread wildfires.

Soil Degradation and Desertification

Soil degradation is another important environmental issue in India. It is reported by the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India, 2016, that 96 million hectares of land in the country have been classified as a ‘total area under desertification’. However, in a nutshell, as per the Wastelands Atlas of India 2019, it is clear that land converted into barren or wasteland has reduced in area from the total area under organic farming being registered under the accredited certification bodies in India was 1,492,611 hectares in 2020-21. Madhya Pradesh holds the top slot for the area under organic farming (as recorded in 540,994 hectares) in the country. 

The data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare indicate that compared to 1951, the ground under rice, wheat, and maize is higher, but the coverage under ragi, jowar, and bajra decreases. Additionally, nitrogen-, phosphorous-, and potassium-based fertilizer utilization increased dramatically from 259.48 lakh tonnes in 2016-17 to 293.69 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, increasing soil deterioration.

Conclusion

The environmental problems in India consist of multiple facets and are connected. They involve air and water pollution, biodiversity loss, waste management problems, and soil degradation, among other things. Dealing with these crucial issues necessitates a systemic and sustainable framework that enriches policymaking and enhances the consciousness of the global population. 

Consequently, this engages policymakers in a serious bid to find a long-term solution. Intricate rules and norms, financial commitment to eco-friendly energy resources, waste treatment facilities, and conservation methods must be diversified to minimize the impact of environmental challenges and allow future generations to own the rich natural history of India.